Reports surface that Napheesa Collier will earn the WNBA Defensive Player of the Year award to pair with her AP Defensive Player of the Year selection.
After much speculation and anticipation, The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported a slew of WNBA postseason award winners. The Minnesota Lynx superstar, Napheesa Collier, was listed as the winner of the 2024 Defensive Player of the Year award.
Indiana Fever’s Caitlin Clark has won the WNBA Rookie of the Year award and Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier has been awarded the Defensive Player of the Year, sources confirm.
Las Vegas’ A’ja Wilson received MVP and Connecticut’s DiJonai Carrington won Most Improved Player. pic.twitter.com/AWAoCl2PWz
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) September 27, 2024
The two-time All-Defensive forward, who just turned 28-year-old this week, is coming off a historic first round of the WNBA playoffs. During Minnesota’s sweep of Phoenix, Collier averaged a WNBA record 40.0 points per game which included tying a WNBA single-game playoff record of 42 points in the series clincher.
Oh, that’s right. We haven’t even talked about the defense yet.
Although defense is notoriously difficult to measure statistically, Collier still achieved a number of feats this year. According to Basketball-Reference.com, here is where she did on the leaderboards:
Individual
- 9.7 rebounds per game (3rd)
- 1.9 steals per game (2nd)
- 1.4 blocks per game (6th)
- 3.7 defensive win shares (2nd)
- 91.2 defensive rating (1st)
Team
- 75.6 team opponent points per game (2nd)
- 41.0% opponent FG% (1st)
- 94.8 team defensive rating (2nd)
There was some waves being made by Las Vegas Aces head coach, Becky Hammon, who stated that people had to go down statistical rabbit holes to make a case for Collier as DPOY over A’ja Wilson. Wilson, the unanimous Most Valuable Player, went 1-3 versus the Lynx this season and among playoff teams, had her second lowest points per game and field goal percentage versus any opponent.
Earlier this week, Collier also received Associated Press’ nod of approval for their Defensive Player of the Year choice as well.
your 2024 @AP Defensive Player of the Year and Coach of the Year. https://t.co/mAo2iRji3Z pic.twitter.com/EH1Ze0fv6O
— Minnesota Lynx (@minnesotalynx) September 22, 2024
Wilson will likely be a competitive runner-up for the DPOY award once the full voting details come out, but make no mistake about it: Napheesa Collier has been an unstoppable force of nature on the defensive end. That said, Collier is also likely to be the runner-up for MVP. Another feather in the cap to add to Phee’s incredible year.
It would only be poetic for Collier to cap things by raising championship banner number five to go along with a Finals MVP award.
not only MVPHEE, she should be DPOY Phee. pic.twitter.com/UJ8aKoX5Jg
— Minnesota Lynx (@minnesotalynx) September 17, 2024